Like buttons, your opinion on them?

[Daniele63]

On my own forum we had discussions about having a like button or not, I'm wondering what is y'alls opinions on the likes and dislikes features in general on social media and forums, what effect it has on people, do you think it's a good or a bad thing?

[ffaf]

For sure I do not fancy the dislike button.  If you have a reasoned opinion, voice it.

I feel like/hearts button are good in "discussion" threads, where "seconded"/"+1" would only clutter the exchange.

On "showcase" threads, I definitely prefer not having it, as actual feedback, even one-liner, is much better than any amount of starts/likes/hearts.

[Melooon]

We have a few related discussions:

• MelonLand Feature request: reactions
• Did reactions damage the internet?

We also tried using a karma system for a while, although it never really worked very well. My own personal view still stands that privately liking something can be a positive feature (and something I've intended to work on here for a LONG time), but having a public likes-tally visible to everyone is inherently toxic.

Its one of those cases where everything should be public, but public things should be high-effort - likes are low-effort and that's fine for a private interaction (often even desirable), but public interactions should be more than that, they should mean something to everyone and be of value to everyone in some way if possible 

[Daniele63]

We have a few related discussions:

Oh, I didn't know this has been discussed already, I'm reading these threads now and quite enjoying it.

My personal thoughts on this is that the presence of the feature creates expectations:

Nobody likes my post - My post is worthless/people do not like it
I have to like a post - Not doing so would mean I don't approve of it

these expectations affect our dopamine/sense of reward, for some people (not all) it will influence the way they express themselves, or it will encourage them to not put their thoughts into words, as pushing the button is the easy way out instead of actually engaging.

I think the bigger problems, such as being ratio'ed, mostly happen on larger communities, but they can also happen on smaller ones, even without the presence of a dislike button.

On social media powered by algorithms, it's a whole different issue. It's why I absolutely hate modern social media, people only cares about how many people liked their posts, and if it gets 0 they think it's worthless.

[candycanearter07]

I get the argument against it, but sometimes I just want to show support for something I like without writing out a long post. As it turns out, people really really end up hating you if you don't like write something long and meaningful every single time and having something safe to use is comforting.

[mortaki]

but public things should be high-effort - likes are low-effort and that's fine for a private interaction (often even desirable)

I agree with this! One of my favorite things about tumblr is that there isn't a visible follower count. You can see your own follows but not anyone else's. This means the culture of the platform doesn't consider follower amount all that important when interacting with people. And I love that! It's part of the reason I stuck with tumblr at all when I don't really use social media. (tbf I don't use my tumblr much either....)

Generally speaking, I feel that interacting on the internet should be more than "I notice you" which is what likes reek of. I, personally, want to know what you liked about this thing I said or this story I wrote. A like means nothing to me by itself. I would rather have two people email me saying they liked something of mine and why than have a thousand people press a button that only tells me they saw it.

Likes aren't for people. They're for algorithms. A way for robots to translate human attention into quantifiable data. A means of ranking the "best posts" without any need to actually interact and evaluate said posts. That alone is enough for me to dislike them on prinicple. Because who exactly is a system like that built for? Certainly not for me or anyone like me.

[ValyceNegative]

I am on another forum that features likes (just likes though, no dislikes) and I find myself using them sparingly on posts that share my exact sentiments on certain arguments, as a way to interact into the discussion, albeit minimally, and convey something like "yup! That's totally what I wanted to say! Ditto". My initial thought is that by using them, I'm not clogging the thread by leaving a comment that's either an exact copy of a previous reply or a monosyllabic "this."

Buuuuut then I look at Melonland or any other forum I was on before likes were a custom... and I realize that the only thing that does is allowing people to be lazier and lazier. People aren't too bothered by repetitive replies and as long as users are invited to talk, they will always add even a hint of personal flavor into their replies. I mean, this post right here already echoes a lot of the things other users have said, doesn't it? And yet it's still different!

One-word replies can still be an issue, but I think the absence of like/dislike pushes people to actually disclose on the reason why they want to like or dislike something, further encouraging the discussion.

[littlelum]

As someone who doesn't usually have much to say, I like the like buttons. It lets me feel like I'm participating in a conversation. I usually stay quiet, as I can't justify giving one word or one sentence responses on places like forums. I think it works better in smaller communities, where likes aren't expected and aren't considered to be the default. After all, on a forum, there's no algorithm to influence or be worried about.

[ffaf]

My personal thoughts on this is that the presence of the feature creates expectations:

Nobody likes my post - My post is worthless/people do not like it
I have to like a post - Not doing so would mean I don't approve of it

these expectations affect our dopamine/sense of reward, for some people (not all) it will influence the way they express themselves, or it will encourage them to not put their thoughts into words, as pushing the button is the easy way out instead of actually engaging.

This resonates with me.  I participate in many communities based on Discourse (a platform which aims to be modern, usable, not addictive).  I like it, but they have "hearts" (= likes) , and sometimes I mindlessly click them instead of writing the simplest of replies.

@littlelum @candycanearter07 I would like to personally thank you because you showed me there is another side of the problem (as usual with many difficult issues).

[arcus]

Nobody likes my post - My post is worthless/people do not like it
I have to like a post - Not doing so would mean I don't approve of it

This is how I feel about it. At a point I begin to overthink things and it becomes a chore. If someone likes my posts often, will they think I dislike them if I don't do the same? Which posts should I like? Will this person judge me for liking too many of their posts? How many is too many? Should I like this post just in case the poster feels ignored?

I eventually started using likes exclusively at the end of a reply chain to show that I've seen someone's reply to me but don't have anything else to say.

As it turns out, people really really end up hating you if you don't like write something long and meaningful every single time and having something safe to use is comforting.

Hey if someone scolds you over something like that, they're not worth your time. That's mean and shouldn't have happened to you.

Edit:
Another thing about likes is that they make little comments and random replies less socially acceptable. With likes on microblogging services, you're expected to like posts over replying unless you personally know who you're replying to. I've bought this up in another thread, but because of this and the privacy settings of forums, converstations with strangers is expected. It's less normalised on this forum, but that's likely because of the generational divide here.